I love Josh Lanyon. That is a fact: she's one of my go-to authors when I'm in the mood for mystery and romance, so when I saw this box set on Netgalley I HAD to request it. I love historical fiction and I also love murder mysteries, so this seemed like the perfect type of read for me and for any fan of the genre.

I loved it, some novellas more than others, but nevertheless, I loved it. All five of them combine romance and heartache, hope and pain, and each one of them have their own brand of mystery set in different historical periods.
I enjoyed them all, but I think my favourites were definitely the third and fifth novella: "This Rough Magic" set in a magical 1935 atmosphere, where rich and privileged Brett Sheridan (who's also on the brink of a nervous breakdown) hires Patrick Rafferty, a rough private detective, to solve the mystery of a stolen folio; and also "Murder Between Pages", a locked-room mystery that delighted me to no end, featuring two rival writers that decide to team up and play amateur sleuth to solve a murder. It was glorious.

I recommend this box set to any Josh Lanyon hardcore fan, but also to readers that enjoy historical mysteries. it was a truly delightful anthology and each of the five novellas have their own distinct atmosphere and setting, an unforgettable cast of characters and some really enjoyable (and sometimes bonkers) mysteries.

4.25* The quality and variety of the tales and the attention to detail make for a great collection.

4* Out of the Blue - powerful imagery of WW1 in this tale that had a sense of the slightly noncon with Cowboy exacting payment for helping Bat out. If I didn't know Josh Lanyon is American, I'd have said that this was a tale written by a Brit and a history buff at that. Her language was so authentic, I couldn't help but be impressed on top of already being impressed by her as an author. As to the the tale, it made me sad that Bat couldn't mourn his loss, at the steps he and Cowboy had to take to stay under the radar. I wasn't sure if I liked Cowboy but he had his own sense of right and wrong and he went out on a limb for Bat. Given the circumstances, I understood the shades of grey within which both men operated and I hoped they could find something lasting, despite the war and despite the time they lived in keeping them apart.

4.5* The Dark Farewell - this tale had me disliking Julian at the start, thinking him arrogant in his youth, endangering himself and David, but part way through the storyline, the ante got upped and a different side to him emerged. Until this point, not having read the blurb, I thought he was a red herring and that the Casey character was one of the co-leads. Julian's belief that he was defective, coupled with his grandfather using him and abusing him, made me sad and though the ending had the faintest touch of being a bit too convenient, I liked that he found a champion in David. JL did well with the red herrings in this and I was thrown off the track about the serial killer. Reading this, though attitudes were appropriate to the time of the tale, it made me glad to be living in more enlightened times and yet sad that some of the stigmas I read about still exist.

4* This Rough Magic - not my favourite of the antho, because the ending felt a tad unrealistic. And, if I'm not mistaken, something that had been bigged up close to the end didn't get an on-page explanation, but the tale did have me wrong-footed for its entirety. I didn't warm to Brett because of his determination to go ahead with a marriage for the wrong reasons, and I don't just mean because he was gay, but I found it surprising that the rougher, more experienced Rafferty was prepared to bare his soul and be Brett's protector in more than one way. I'm not sure that I saw these two together as a couple, as they were separated by social class and because there wasn't enough of an explanation of their future lives at the end, but the story was still incredibly authentically written. Again, I have to admire the detail and the sense of JL doing her research. Some of the terminology, though appropriate to the time the tale was set, was jarring to me in these days of being PC and as a non-Caucasian, but it was entirely in keeping with the tale, and kudos to JL for not shying away from what another author might have. It did have some of my favourite lines of the antho in it: ...a butler who looked like a close relative of Bela Lugosi came to the door and enquired, in a high-hat British accent, what Rafferty required. Rafferty required an audience with that man of affairs, William Lennox. Dracula regretted that Mr. Lennox was not available. ..."I do not believe so, sir," Dracula drawled in a manner clearly designed to discourage tradesmen and others whose names were not found in the pages of Social Register. Intelligent, amusing writing from JL as usual, which bumped this tale from 3.5* to 4*

3.75* Slay Ride I read this a while back but only vaguely remembered the tale. I reread it in this antho, this time round prepared that I would not be reading a romance first and foremost. Again, I admire the true-to-the-period writing, and it was interesting to read about the prejudices and constraints within which non-het people had to live with. Given that this tale is only set in 1943, and that one lead was about 23 and the other about 28, I think I'd have liked to see how the leads fared living as landlord and lodger, over time. Even if the leads only lived another 40-50 years, that'd have brought them into more accepting times and to know how they had lived their lives and whether they got a chance to be true to themselves would have made me rate this higher.

5* A good old-fashioned whodunnit, reminiscent of JL's more recent tales, such as the Holmes and Moriarty ones. I was utterly clueless about the murderer, finding myself distracted by an excellent red herring thrown in with the right amount of casualness. There was far less of a romantic aspect in this, which was perfect for the tale, given that the leads antagonised each other and that the whole tale took place over a period of just under 24 hours. So much detail, so many characters, some dry humour and quips, and so many other events that it seemed that far longer had lapsed, resulting in an excellent tale, which was the read of the antho.

ARC courtesy of JustJoshing Publishing, Inc. and NetGalley, for my reading pleasure.